The Traditional Clock Versus the Digital

Analogue  Versus Digital

What is the obvious dashboard fitting that lets you know you are in a luxury car? It will almost certainly have an analogue clock, for the simple reason that they are easier to read and convey more information at a glance than a row of digital numbers. Douglas Adams, the author of ‘A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, explained it thus; an analogue clock face is a sort of pie chart that shows a part-whole relationship in an immediately obvious way and it shows the relationship of one time of day to another in a way that rows of digital numbers do not. A quick glance at the dial will let you know straight away how far into the morning you are and how far away lunchtime is. It is more useful to know that it is a quarter past ten than to know that it is 10:13 because most people will have to do a further mental calculation to work out what time it really is.

Choose an Analogue Clock for Your Home

While digital clocks have their moment in the area of sports, engineering and physics, where hundredths of seconds matter, time moves differently in the everyday world. Time does not progress in jumps of numerals per second or flash by in a cascade of electronic data. Seconds, minutes, and hours are just useful  inventions – time actually flows continuously and even with an old clock that tick-tocks, the even movement of the hands around the dial is a better depiction of time than electronic changing numerals and somehow more peaceful to live with. It is an interesting thought that some things cannot be improved upon by being made digital – a plumb bob, a chalk line and a spirit level come to mind, as does a compass – all somehow more complicated and difficult to use in digital form, while their traditional counterparts function with perfect simplicity.

Traditional Clock Face Combines with Wood

The soft lustre and warmth that wood, as a natural material, brings to a room is a good reason to choose your desk, bedroom or wall clock from our hand-crafted range in beautiful native timbers – Redgum, Jarrah, Ash, the cute and interesting Banksia Nut and the elegant Ancient Redgum with its fascinating story are some of the available choices. Modern offices and home interiors benefit from  a touch of wood which brings intimacy and ‘the natural’ into your environment. The impossible-to-improve simplicity of the traditional clock face set in warm, natural wood is a winning combination.